Overall results for Samsung have not been impressive lately, as the electronics giant saw both revenue and profit decrease as the overall smartphone market share dropped from 32% to 25%. In China Xiaomi has taken the top spot and competition is increasing from all sides not just Apple with Motorola, LG and Huawei increasing their market share.

So while the iPhone 6 gave Apple a record quarter and 4 million devices were sold the first day and 10 million over the first weekend, Samsung is struggling with sales of the flagship Galaxy S5.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a big reason for the bad numbers of the mobile division is the fact that the flagship Galaxy S5 is selling well below expectations. Sales for the last three month came in at 12 million units, 40% below what the company had forecasted. The Galaxy S4 sold 16 million units in the same time period.

According to WSJ, sales in China has declined by 50%, the only market which remains stable is the U.S.

Samsung is now increasing their marketing spend and plan to offer more discounts during the holiday season in an attempt to win back market share and clear warehouses.

Android L was first announce during Google I/O in June. The update which is said to be called “Android Lemon Meringue Pie” is going to be available for the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S5 in late November or early December according to Sammobile.

Here is a quick look at what the new version will bring.

Android L – Connected, faster, efficient and better looking The new version of Android is going to be available for developers on June 26, for the regular consumer there is no exact release date, Google just stated it is going to be officially launched “this fall”.
What Google showcased looked promising:

You are always going to be connected with Android L.

“We want to know where you are, and we want to be voice enabled. It shouldn’t matter which device you are using, we should pick up where you left off.”

Calls, text messaging, notifications etc can all show up on your PC, your search history accounts and apps – everything is synchronized between all your devices.

Improved battery life

Google is going to give developers access to the battery use. A battery saver mode is also going to be integrated which can increase the battery life by up to 90 minutes per day.

A new design

The new OS is going to have the same look and feel across all platforms.

The look and feel is clean, yet colorful, flat but also dimensional.

One of the biggest improvements that consumers are going to notice are the notifications which are much more user friendly in this version, can be viewed on the lockscreen and are customizable beyond that.

Apple has officially revealed the new iPhone. Two models are available, the 4.7″ version and the 5.5″ which is called iPhone 6 Plus.

Apple is also going back to the roots of the iPhone by bringing back the round design.

Steve Jobs would have deemed both models unusable due to the large screen size but Apple has been losing market share to larger devices so this step could not be avoided. To make it easier to use and navigate on such a big screen, Apple has introduced what they call “Reachability”. A double click on the home button reduces the size of open window to half the size of the display, making it easy to press any buttons with your thumb.

Specifications and Features

First of all, the iPhone 6 series is of course based on iOS 8 which will also be available for download for previous models on September 17th, two days before the iPhone 6 goes on sale.

The iPhone 6 has the same resolution as the iPhone 5S while the iPhone 6 Plus has a resolution on par with most other flagship devices from Samsung, LG and HTC – 1,080 x 1,920.

Both models are based on the new Apple A8 processor. Due to the architecture, the A8 gives both new devices better battery life than the iPhone 5S.

The camera is actually disappointing. While Apple talked a lot about the sensor being upgraded and the FPS have doubled to 240 compared to the iPhone 5S, a 8 MP rear and 1.2 MP front camera just isn’t good enough for a high-end device. The Samsung Galaxy S5 for example comes in at 16 MP, the Sony Xperia Z2 even offers 20.7 MP.

Unlike previously rumored, the iPhone 6 does not come with a sapphire display. Apple simply says it is “ion-strengthened”.

The design though is just stunning and as you can see from the detailed flagship comparison below, the iPhone 6 is the thinnest high-end smartphone available on the market.

Apple also announced “Apple Pay”. Google has introduced this in the past as well but it seems that Apple still has the power to move a market. They have gotten the six biggest banks and all major credit card companies on board alread0y and also announced a number of merchant partners including McDonalds, Starbucks, Disney, Subway, Target and many more.

Price and Availability

When the iPhone 6 series goes on sale on September 19th, here is what the pricing will look like

Last week we reported on the challenging quarter Samsung announced. Revenue, profits and market share all had declined during the quarter and the company predicted stiffer competition ahead but also mentioned during the call that a new flagship phone was being worked on.

That new flagship might now have been leaked. It is not confirmed if that is actually the design of the new flagship.

One thing that stands out, are the metal edges. Many people have complained that the Galaxy S5 feels cheap so it seems the company is taking the same approach as Apple who has used metal edges in many of their devices including the flagship iPhone 5s.

Time will tell if consumers like it but one thing is for sure, Samsung needs more than metal edges to gain back the lost market share.

Right after Amazon first showcased the Fire Phone we reported on the features and our opinion.

The phone has clearly been designed to give more people direct access to Amazon, reach consumers with their content and products at all times rather than becoming a key player in the smartphone market. Even if the features and hardware is not living up to the expectations people had prior to the launch, Amazon could still have had a much bigger impact on the smartphone market if they would have adopted the same strategy as they did with the Kindle tablet which they are basically selling at cost, the profits are made on the revenue generated by their digital content and Amazon orders.

But were we wrong to believe the Fire Phone will not be a real threat to the likes of Samsung and Apple?

The phone has now been on sale for a week and according to Amazon it is the best selling smartphone for them. But is that really the case? Amazon could easily manipulate the best selling list to give the Fire Phone more exposure and let the market believe it is more popular than what is actually the case.

We understand there are people that are heavily tied to the Amazon ecosystem and for them this phone has a lot of features that make sense. However we see a small market outside of that. Why would you switch from Android or iOS?

One thing that we can say for sure is that the user reviews aren’t exactly glowing. The device has 366 reviews so far and three stars. To compare, the Apple iPhone 5s gets a four star rating while the Samsung Galaxy S5 gets 4 – 4.5 stars depending on which version you look at.

Here is what users are saying:

The Bad:

The device gets extremely hot

Instability of certain apps

Missing a lot of Android apps

Issues pairing the device with vehicles

Battery life

A lot of users want more carrier options and rate the phone negatively because they would like to see Sprint, Verizon or T-mobile.

One thing we were surprised to read about is that even when you buy the unlocked version for $649 you are not able to use any other carrier, what is the point of that? If you don’t have a relationship with AT&T the phone is useless.

The Good:

Good camera

Easy to navigate

12 month Amazon Prime membership

General integration / ease of shopping with Amazon

Dynamic perspective

We were not convinced from the start and given the latest user reviews it seems Amazon has come out with a phone that is loved by many, especially customers closely connected to Amazon however it seems to have a number of issues which need to be addressed.